History Lesson

The collection consists of five short stories: "The Meeting," "One of Many," "At the Old Nanny's," "One Hundred for One," and "The Incident at the Telegraph Office."

A biopic, looking at one of the major leaders of the assassination of Czar Alexander II.

While Dresden is in ruins in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, over two thousand paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Raphael, Rubens, Giorgione, and Vermeer have disappeared from the city’s Old Masters Picture Gallery. Red Army captain Leonov and his soldiers are ordered to recover the lost paintings.

About the life of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.

Girlfriends Zoya, Natasha and Asya live in Petrograd. Before the Civil War, young heroines are aware of the social injustice of life. When the war begins, the girls are recorded by the orderlies of the working group to protect the Bolshevik Petrograd from the advance of the whites.

He's a troublemaker, he's nothing but trouble. And he's a terrible lover, even in the army, he's had a bad love affair. He decided to devote himself entirely to the military. One day he had the chance to become a hero, and he did.

Pyotr, backward lad from poor village, comes to town desperate for work. He's hired as replacement ("scab") worker at big metallurgical factory, which is in the throes of a strike organized by the Bolsheviks (communists). Deceitful industrialist's son involves naive young man in an attempt to murder Bolshevik leader.

The Soviet classic based on the biography of one of the main October Revolution leaders - Sergey Kirov.

A young teacher is sent to a remote province, separating her from her lover, and sets about the difficult task of building a school there.

Russian ballet version of Shakespeare's tragedy about star crossed lovers from two feuding Italian Renaissance families. The film was based on the 1940 production of Prokofiev's ballet, choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky. It won the Best Lyrical Film at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, was nominated as the Palme d'Or.

A Soviet documentary made for the 10th anniversary of the new Turkish Republic in the year 1934.

The story of an effort to catch "wreckers" at work in a Soviet factory. The film’s title-song called "The Song of the Counterplan", composed by Dmitri Shostakovich, became world famous and was adapted into "Au-devant de la vie", a notable song of the French socialist movement of the 1930s.

In June of 1941, at the outset of the Nazi invasion of Russia, a group of Soviet servicemen languidly biding their time at the Brest fortress on the Polish border, are suddenly galvanized into action. All desires to return home to their wives and sweethearts are swept aside as the courageous garrison unites to thwart a common enemy.

The true story of one of Russia's most beloved national heroines. During the Nazi siege of Moscow, a fearless 18-year-old girl named Zoya risked her life as a partisan fighter. Captured by the Germans, Zoya endured unspeakable tortures at the hands of the Gestapo but still refused to betray her comrades. Even on the gallows, Zoya defiantly spoke out against the Nazis and everything they stood for. In a series of flashbacks, this film re-creates not merely Zoya's death, but also her life.

Short propaganda film released to raise army morale during first months of war. Civil War hero and Red Army commander Vasily Chapayev (killed in 1919 by White Army officers then drowned in the Ural river) swims ashore but it's the summer of 1941. Chapayev asks who are Soviets fighting off this time, hears that it's Germans once again and then gives an inspiring speech. He is played by Boris Babochkin who famously portrayed Chapayev in 1934 biopic.

A look behind the scenes at the Bolshoi Theatre. This feature-length ballet film explores the Russian school of realistic dance and highlights the immense daily effort that goes into an artist’s preparation before they take to the stage. Chronicles the arduous journey to mastery: from the first lessons of the kids who joined the ballet class, to the performances of famous dancers – the public’s idols, who have already mastered the magical lightness and beauty of choreography, the pinnacle of this art.